The Dems Won By Putting Up Conservative Candidates In Red States

My prediction is that the raving leftists of this country will eventually be thrown under the bus. I'm assuming that the Dems want to remain in power, and this is how they are going to need to do it. The center of the electorate is much, much bigger than the leftist fringe. And the center has moved to the right, as witnessed by the Dems recent lack of interest in gun control, as well as their attempt to paint themselves as religious, and as witnessed by the passage of numerous defense of marriage initiatives throughout the land. It's going to be an interesting couple of years watching this. The Blue Dog Dems are not going to let the lefties run the show. And anti-antiwar Lieberman has serious leverage in a 51-49 Senate. I think the Dems are going to realize they now have a tremendous opportunity to erase forever their weak-on-defense image. And I think they're going to take it. If you thought Republican conduct of the war on terror was brutal (and if you did, you're pretty foolish), you haven't seen anything, yet. Also, the Dems now have a chance to strongly influence what kind of Great Society the new Iraq will be. Do you think they're going to pass that up?

What's better for a conservative than openly ridiculing all of the demented, out-of-power foaming-at-the-mouth, enraged, bitter America-hating leftists? I'll tell you what's better. Seeing them end up depressed, dejected, ignored, and "sold out" by what they thought would be "their" Democratic Party. The Republicans have shown us for six years that power trumps ideology. The Democrats won't be any different. Buh-bye, leftist fringe! Prepare to be very unpleasantly surprised, Jihadis!

Apropos cartoon:




Excerpts from apropos Krauthammer piece:

A margin this close should no longer surprise us. For this entire decade the country has been evenly divided politically. The Republicans had control but by very small majorities. In 2000, the presidential election was settled by a ridiculously small margin. And the Senate ended up deadlocked 50-50. All the changes since then have been minor. Until now.

But the great Democratic wave of 2006 is nothing remotely like the great structural change some are trumpeting. It was an event-driven election that produced the shift of power one would expect when a finely balanced electorate swings mildly one way or the other.

This is not realignment. As has been the case for decades, American politics continues to be fought between the 40-yard lines. The Europeans fight goal line to goal line, from socialist left to the ultranationalist right. On the American political spectrum, these extremes are negligible. American elections are fought on much narrower ideological grounds. In this election, the Democrats carried the ball from their own 45-yard line to the Republican 45-yard line.

The fact that the Democrats crossed midfield does not make this election a great anti-conservative swing. Republican losses included a massacre of moderate Republicans in the Northeast and Midwest. And Democratic gains included the addition of many conservative Democrats, brilliantly recruited by Rep. Rahm Emanuel with classic Clintonian triangulation. Hence Heath Shuler of North Carolina, anti-abortion, pro-gun, anti-tax — and now a Democratic congressman.

The result is that both parties have moved to the right. The Republicans have shed the last vestiges of their centrist past, the Rockefeller Republican. And the Democrats have widened their tent to bring in a new crop of blue-dog conservatives.

Moreover, ballot initiatives make the claim of a major anti-conservative swing quite problematic. In Michigan, liberal Democrats swept the gubernatorial and senatorial races, yet a ballot initiative to abolish affirmative action passed 58-42. Seven out of eight anti-gay marriage amendments to state constitutions passed. And nine states passed referendums asserting individual property rights against the government's power of eminent domain.

To muddy even more the supposed ideological significance of this election, consider who is the biggest winner of the night: Joe Lieberman. Just a few months ago, he was scorned by his party and left for dead. Now he returns to the Senate as the Democrats’ 51st seat — and holder of the balance of power. From casualty to kingmaker in three months. Not bad. His Democratic colleagues who abandoned him this summer will now treat him very well.

Lieberman won with a platform that did not trim or hedge about seeking victory in Iraq. And he did it despite having a Republican in the race who siphoned off ten percent of the pro-war vote. All this in Connecticut, a very blue state.

The public’s views on what we ought to do with the war remain mixed, as do its general ideological inclinations. What happened on Tuesday? The electorate threw the bums out in disgust with corruption and in deep dissatisfaction with current Iraq policy. Reading much more into this election is a symptom of either Republican depression or Democratic wishful thinking.